David Welbourn had pause to think about coincidences on events over the Christmas period this year.
If you have been following the unfolding story (yes that is a pun) of the James Webb telescope, you will know that its launch from French Guiana was delayed by weather, so that it had to be launched on Christmas Day.
Perhaps the most expensive piece of origami ever – as it was delicately folded into the rocket payload and then slowly unfolded in space. Before they could reconstruct the mirror, they had to unfurl five layers of insulating sheets to protect the delicate instrument from the sun’s rays. Only then could they start putting the pieces in place to open all 6½ metre diameter of the mirror. Eighteen sections which had to be unfolded and then moved into place using unbelievably accurate actuators or motors. There are 126 of those motors, each having to move by about 20mm into its own location, to ensure perfect focus of the mirror with all the sections properly aligned. Each had to be adjusted accurately to within 10 nanometres (thats one hundred thousandth of a millimetre) to ensure the mirror works flawlessly.
Tricky you might think, even in an engineering facility..
But it had to do that at a temperature of around -230 degrees centigrade, whilst the whole satellite was flying on its journey to nearly one million miles away – one of the few places where the gravitational pull from the sun and earth cancel each other out. All this manoeuvring whilst the earth’s rotation was putting it into shadow, so that the command signals had to be rerouted from Australia to Spain in the middle of the operation. No wonder NASA was jubilant when everything went swimmingly.
There is something profound about the timing of its launch and final assembly.
It was on the day when we celebrate the incarnation of God on earth, that it was launched. God the ultimate creator and architect of the universe, choosing to shed his power, and come to earth as a powerless, vulnerable, dependent baby, born homeless and soon to become a refugee. It was on that day that we launched the quest for more understanding of the origin of creation, sending this vulnerable instrument into the remoteness of space. Totally useless until it had been allowed to grow and mature into its finished design. Totally vulnerable to the space wind and heat and radiation until its protective shield had unfurled. Totally useless until it has continued its journey to that magical Legrange point four times further away than the moon. Totally useless unless it remains in frequent communication with its creators.
A telescope that will allow us to look into the heart of creation. With the wonder of physics, as we gaze on the distant reaches of the universe, we will be looking back in time, long before the first galaxy had formed. To discover what the universe was like when it was formless and void, full of darkness, because the first stars and galaxies had not yet been formed to create light.
And on the first day, God separated the light from the darkness – and it was good.
All this unfolding story took place in the season of Epiphany – when we remember that the unexpected appearance in the night sky had so intrigued the magi – the scientists of their day – that they set out on their own quest to seek answers to the mystery which they hadn’t yet understood. Theirs was a voyage into the unknown, willing to be guided by their unfolding discovery, being led towards a greater understanding of life. Fully expecting to see a mighty powerful prince in a palace, yet amazed to see that their journey of discovery led them to a different kind of wonder. A place of poverty and simplicity and promise. A place of new beginnings and fresh revelations. A place in which God’s glory was waiting to bring new light into the darkness.
David Welbourn